Bullpen Report: August 18, 2017

It has now been a full week since Aroldis Chapman put himself in jeopardy of blowing a save against the Red Sox by starting the ninth inning with three consecutive walks. Little has gone right since then.

To recap, he blew a save on Sunday, recorded a save on Tuesday despite allowing an Amed Rosario two-run homer and sat out Wednesday and Thursday due to a hamstring injury. Though Joe Girardi has insisted that Chapman is still his closer, on Friday, he brought him in for the bottom of the eighth inning against the Red Sox even though the Yankees trailed by a run. Once again, Chapman dug himself a hole, allowing a leadoff single to Rafael Devers (who homered off him on Sunday), walking Christian Vazquez and then allowing a double steal. That set up a two-RBI single by Jackie Bradley, Jr., all before Chapman recorded his first out.

Dellin Betances got the save for the Yankees on Thursday against the Mets, and if Girardi is ready to make a change, he would be the most likely candidate to replace Chapman. If you play in a Yahoo league, you don’t have a great chance of picking up Betances, who is 79 percent owned, but he is far more available in ESPN (64 percent owned) and CBS (49 percent owned) leagues. Whichever site you play on, it’s worth a trip to the waiver wire to see if Betances is still out there.

The Cardinals placed Trevor Rosenthal on the 10-day disabled list on Thursday, but it is not yet clear what treatment he will get on the UCL in his right elbow. Rosenthal will see a specialist next week to get a second opinion, and surgery could be a possible outcome. In the meantime, Mike Matheny plans on using both Seung Hwan Oh and Tyler Lyons in save situations. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oh will get the call when right-handed hitters are due up, while Lyons could be used for either righty or lefty batters.

Oh would have gotten a save chance on Thursday against the Pirates, after Lyons took care of the eighth inning, but the Cardinals tacked on four runs in the top of the ninth for an 11-5 lead. Oh came in anyway, and even after allowing singles to righties Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen, he stayed in to pitch to switch-hitting Josh Bell (whom he retired). All in all, Oh stuck around long enough to give up two runs.

On Friday, Matheny called on Matt Bowman to get the save, but after loading the bases with a pair of walks and a hit batter, he exited to make way for Zach Duke, and ultimately, Oh. In getting the final two outs, Oh was credited with a save. Despite his recent struggles, Oh is being used as if he is the primary closer in the committee, but I wouldn’t put it past Lyons to work his way into the bulk of the save situations.

Hopefully, the Cardinals’ situation won’t be as confusing as the Angels’. Heading into Friday, Cam Bedrosian had been granted three of the team’s last five save chances, but in the series opener against the Orioles, he was brought in for the sixth inning. This was not a case of Mike Scioscia using Bedrosian to face the opponents’ best hitters in a tight situation. While the Angels did have a two-run lead, the Orioles’ batters due up were Mark Trumbo, Anthony Santander and Caleb Joseph, who were batting in the sixth, seventh and eighth spots. This time around, Scioscia opted to give Yusmeiro Petit a two-inning save chance, but after allowing a Santander single (his first career hit) and a Seth Smith walk, the Angels’ manager turned the game over to Keynan Middleton. The 23-year-old rookie promptly coughed up a Tim Beckham single and a Manny Machado grand slam (his third home run of the game).

The White Sox’s closer situation may have gained some clarity, as Juan Minaya pitched a scoreless ninth inning at Texas for his first career save. This was the first save recorded by a White Sox reliever since the team traded Tyler Clippard to the Astros on Sunday.

The Nationals swapped one reliever on the DL for another on Thursday. Shawn Kelley, who had been recovering from a trapezius strain, was activated, while Ryan Madson was placed on the 10-day DL with a right finger sprain. Thursday also marked the return of Glen Perkins from the DL, and he made his first appearance in coming back from shoulder surgery that night. Perkins entered with a 7-3 deficit to the Indians in the ninth inning and allowed two runs on two hits, one walk and two hit batters. On Friday, the Indians activated Andrew Miller (knee), and he faced three batters to finish out the sixth inning in relief of Corey Kluber in a 10-1 win over the Royals.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
ARI	Fernando Rodney	Archie Bradley	David Hernandez
ATL	Arodys Vizcaino	Jim Johnson	Jose Ramirez
BAL	Zach Britton	Mychal Givens	Brad Brach
BOS	Craig Kimbrel	Addison Reed	Matt Barnes	Carson Smith
CHC	Wade Davis	Justin Wilson	Carl Edwards Jr.
CWS	Juan Minaya	Gregory Infante	Jake Petricka	Nate Jones
CIN	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Drew Storen
CLE	Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Joe Smith
COL	Greg Holland	Pat Neshek	Adam Ottavino
DET	Shane Greene	Alex Wilson	Joe Jimenez
HOU	Ken Giles	Chris Devenski	Luke Gregerson	Will Harris
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Brandon Maurer
LAA	Cam Bedrosian	Blake Parker	Keynan Middleton	Huston Street
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Luis Avilan	Pedro Baez
MIA	Brad Ziegler	Kyle Barraclough	Junichi Tazawa
MIL	Corey Knebel	Anthony Swarzak	Jacob Barnes
MIN	Matt Belisle	Trevor Hildenberger	Glen Perkins
NYM	A.J. Ramos	Paul Sewald	Jerry Blevins	Jeurys Familia
NYY	Aroldis Chapman	Dellin Betances	David Robertson
OAK	Blake Treinen	Ryan Dull	Santiago Casilla
PHI	Hector Neris	Luis Garcia	Jesen Therrien
PIT	Felipe Rivero	Juan Nicasio	Joaquin Benoit
STL	Seung Hwan Oh	Tyler Lyons	Matt Bowman	Trevor Rosenthal
SD	Brad Hand	Kirby Yates	Phil Maton
SF	Sam Dyson	Hunter Strickland	Mark Melancon
SEA	Edwin Diaz	Nick Vincent	Tony Zych	David Phelps
TB	Alex Colome	Tommy Hunter	Steve Cishek
TEX	Alex Claudio	Jose Leclerc	Matt Bush	Keone Kela
TOR	Roberto Osuna	Ryan Tepera	Dominic Leone
WSH	Sean Doolittle	Brandon Kintzler	Matt Albers	Ryan Madson

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]